Dark Chess variants

From Dennis Merritt, we received the following variants on Darkness Chess, also
called Dark Chess.

Variant rules

If you moved your King in check, you receive a warning and are not
allowed to make the move. If you are in check, you have three tries to
escape. After three failures you lose.

This captures more of the flavor
of checkmate and introduces the possibility of exploratory King moves.

In the game display the opponents non-visible pieces are displayed in a
lighter shade on the squares where you think they might be. You can
freely move about your latest estimates of the opponent's position. Once
you discover a piece's position, clearly you will update your estimate
to reflect that new knowledge.

Comment

Denniss adds:

From a explanation point of view, Dark Chess adds bluff and intrigue to
regular Chess.

Webpage made by Hans Bodlaender, based upon an email of Dennis Merritt.
WWW page made: January 15, 2003.
﻿

Comments

i have recently become introduced to the exciting chess varaint of dark
chess, after having spent over 2 years on a correspondence chess site
which offered no variants to the original game.
i have had my own thoughts on the game (i now play at itsyourturn.com so i
am unfamiliar with other websites versions of the rules) regarding knowing
where ones opponents pieces might be. the website on which i play doesnt
show the list of moves until after the game. instead it shows the move
number and 'w' then 'b' as links back to the corresponding positions.
i
thought it would be useful to show the moves which are known (ie, my moves
and some of my opponents) with 100% confidence in emboldened lettering. it
could also show in standard font the move (or moves if more than one
logical move) which one suspects might have been played, and then for the
unknown moves to be kept shrouded as ?'s or w/b's.
my second thought has already been noted. that is, regarding the actual
pieces which you know your opponent still has but that you dont know of
the exact locations.
the alternative rule about checking and mating is a new concept to me. i
am used to the rule where checking doesnt occur, and im quite happy with
it. i hope i read correctly, but i wouldnt like to be able to use my king
for 2 moves to be able to learn more about his neighbours before finally
settling on a 3rd safe move. i would have to play this rule in order to
better understand it.